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tv   Americas News HQ  FOX News  December 31, 2017 1:00pm-2:00pm PST

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of you for watching. happy new year, we hope to see you right here next week. >> hello, everyone. i'm eric shawn, this is america's news headquarter. >> and i'm arthel neville. one officer killed and several others injured in a shooting in colorado. the latest on the ambush-style attack that prompted a response from president trump. >> also ahead, president trump reacting to the continuing protests against the iranian regime that have now sadly turned deadly. could the demonstrations mean -- what could they mean for the future of the hard-line regime? >>sa the country gets ready to ring in the new year, cities from new york to san francisco will be on high alert to keep partygoers safe.
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america's news headquarters starts right now. and we begin with president trump gearing up for a busy week in washington after the holiday break as congressional leaders get set for wednesday meeting at the white house to talk about immigration and spending. right now president trump is relaxing at mar-a-lago estate in florida but not taking a break from twitter. as the president speaks out on issues here, at home and overseas. steve harringon is live in west palm beach not far from the president's home. i see you wearing a blazer, unlike us here in new york, a little jealous. to your point, what is the latest on president's response, a lot happening there in iran today? >> that's right, arthel. the president paying close attention to the protests across iran. he's been offering support for the demonstrators on a number of occasions and taking to
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twitter writing a short time ago, big protests in iran, the people are finally getting wise how money and wealth is stolen and squandered on terrorism. looks like they will not take it any longer, the usa is watching closely for human rights violations. this marks the third day in a row the president tweeted about the situation in iran. arthel? >> the president taking note what's happening abroad as well. getting a little r&r there, playing a little golf, yeah? >> perfect weather, he's played every day except for christmas. he played another 18 holes this morning. they moved trees and trucks to eliminate some of the frofr shots they were getting of his swing. he had lunch with the florida governor rick scott. they talked about infrastructure plans for the state of florida, and tonight as he has for the past two decades, rings in the new year with family and friends at mar-a-lago.
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tickets going for guests at $750 apiece. back to you. >> sounds like a good time. thank you very much, steve harrigan. >> the anti-government protests in iran are continuing for a fourth day. tragically some of them have turned deadly. a news agency reporting two protesters killed that happened in a rally last night while dozens of more demonstrators arrested. amid the largest wave of anti-government demonstrations in nearly a decade since the green revolution street protests that were massive in 2009. the government in tehran is pushing back. the interior ministry warning that protesters will pay the price, but you know at this hour, the leading iranian opposition leaders from the resistance of iran to the shah's son, they're calling for worldwide support for the
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iranian people against the theocratic regime. just after midnight of a new year in tehran. what is the status of the protests that we know about. >> as you said, there are two protesters who reportedly died in the iranian government has blocked access to social media apps that protesters were using to communicate. that is still going on right now. they were using telegram, a messaging app to communicate and coordinate with each other. the government said they had to limit access because of security concerns. the ceo of telegram is saying this has been blocked and restricted. many view it as an attempt to stifle dissent. they addressed the nation since the protests began three days ago. violence is not okay. over 200 people were arrested at anti-government protests in the nation's capital. two people died at another protest in the city of dorud.
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the protest was illegal. the deputy of security for provinces said the investigation found evidence of the extremist group and said, quote, during the clash that took two lives, no bullets were shot from police and security forces at the people. opposition groups are disputing that claim. they say police opened fire on protesters. they posted videos online which we can show you some of. they appear to show protesters bleeding from bullet wounds and one point in the video, you can hear pops in the distance as people rush out of the crowd carrying a person. these are, eric, the largest anti-government protests. in 2009 there were major protests following the presidential election. >> sadly, back then, they dissipated at that point. the president is tweeting out strongly, about the protesters in what specific demands do they have on the government? >> right, they have quite a few
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demands and took them directly to the supreme leader in tehran. they want to see a new government. the protests began because of economic issues, employment. the rising cost of goods, no protests on economic concern, now seems to be about the system at large, about a government that the protesters see as corrupt. in a statement, the opposition group said, quote, the protest movement the accept nothing short of the removal of the islamic regime and establishment of a free, democratic iran with a new government guaranteeing the right of every iranian citizen to live free of oppression and discrimination with justice and equality. in some videos, protesters can be heard down with the dictator. looks like the protests are not close to ending. eric? >> they're also calling -- some of them calling for the return of the king. that means raisa avi.
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later on in this hour, we'll hear from one of the leaders of the opposition groups with the national council of resistance of iran, in the 6:00 p.m. hour we'll hear some of my interview with the prince who called for the peaceful, civil demonstrations to take the people's message to the leaders in tehran. both interviews quite fascinating. stay tuned for that, arthel? >> absolutely. tensions continuing along the gaza border, weeks after president trump roiled the region with some upset recognizing jerusalem as israel's capital. washington is promising to be a peace broker in 2018. conor powell live in jerusalem now. where are we in the process of president trump's middle east peace plan? >> yeah, arthel. president trump has promised an agreement to be declined sometime in the next few months. the white house saying in the first part of 2018 president trump has called an agreement
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between the israelis and palestinians the ultimate deal. president trump has met with israeli prime minister several times, benjamin netanyahu and the palestinian president mahmoud abbas, earlier this year at the white house, and his envoy jason greenblatt spend a considerable amount of time from israelis and palestinians. not only to listen to what they have to say but to meet with people outside the traditional power circles in the palestinian and israeli political leadership here. he's been praised on both parts. but their sincere willingness on the part of the envoy jason greenblatt is being criticized by president trump's decision on jerusalem, that has frustration and anger being sort of voiced by the palestinians here. there's a lot of distrust of the american administration right now because of president
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trump's recent decision on jerusalem, and all of the prongs, arthel, that we've had in previous attempts to bridge the gap between israelis and palestinians, whether it's president clinton, president bush, president obama, all of those issues on the table then, they are still here on the table. they're still a problem and you have the most recent issue of jerusalem as the capital of israel by president trump. that issue is still very much on the table and will be magnified now. >> how does the president's decision impact peace talks? >> palestinians are extremely angry, but frustrated with this decision by president trump. not only because of the decision but because they feel like it took an issue that was used as -- to get the israelis to the table. there's a lot of concern that right now there isn't much in the way that the u.s. administration can push the israelis to do an agreement. that said, the palestinians are
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basically saying that they're not going to work with this white house with, this american government because they say that the u.s. is no longer an honest broker of peace. this is a role they say the u.s. has had for many decades and the trump administration has abdicated that. reality is there's no other country right now in the world positioned to lead talk between israelis and palestinians, not only because of the historical precedence and the size and the importance of the united states and the middle east but also because there's no other country that provides as much money to both israelis and palestinians day in and day out and for decades now. so the u.s. still a major player. where we're at right now, arthel is, the palestinians don't want to meet and talk to u.s. officials, that could easily change once an agreement or a plan is put on the table. how it will be received by either side, that's up in the air. that will very much be about what are the details in this plans, but for right now, it
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doesn't look like there is much prospects for peace negotiations to restart let alone a peace plan to be agreed to. that could change in the spring or later this summer, arthel? >> we'll be watching, of course, conor powell in jerusalem. thank you. a fox news alert, developments to tell but in the new year's eve day tragedy in colorado. the deputy sheriff there has been killed leaving a wife and young children. several other officers were wounded along with two civilians in the shooting that occurred in the denver suburb. officers responding to disturbance among roommates at a housing complex dhachlt shoot and kill the suspected gunman. president trump tweeting today -- will carr in los angeles with more on this ambush-style shooting that sadly took the
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life of a law enforcement. hello, will. reporter: and eric, a handful of deputies walked into onslaught of gunfire in highlands ranch, colorado. 15 miles from denver. they were responding to disturbance call. the suspect evidently making a lot of noise. when the officers walked into the apartment, the suspect unloaded, firing more than 100 rounds, four deputies injured, one deputy was shot and killed two. civilians shot as well and the gunman who is not identified is killed by members of a regional s.w.a.t. team. authorities say they are very familiar with the man, while his motive is unclear at this point, we learned he used a rifle in the attack and evidently waiting for officers to arrive including deputy parish who is 29 years old. >> we are deeply saddened by the loss of zachary. when i sat with his wife and held her hand, i could see in
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her eyes, her life is over, and i've been a blessed sheriff. i've had wonderful things happening to me, wonderful savings. my deputies have been shot at, run over, and they survived. it was very difficult today to see zach for the last time. reporter: deputy parish was married and had two young kids. you just heard a heart-breaking loss for family and fellow officers. remaining victims have non-life-threatening injuries. a procession led his body from a hospital in littleton, colorado to the medical examiner's office and the governor releasing a statement which read in part --
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eric? >> do you have information on that fallen officer's fund. can people go to the douglas county sheriff? >> they posted it on social media and on their website, if you want to check that out. >> the douglas county sheriff's office in colorado. will, a reminder of the sacrifices our law enforcement officers provide for all of us every day as well as their families. thank you. >> and we move on, as the new year will bring new challenges for a president still riding high after signing a historic tax reform package into law. we'll look at president trump's first year in office and look ahead to items topping the republican agenda in 2018. the president said he wants to work with democrats on health care and infrastructure. will that bipartisan let? >> infrastructure by far is the easiest, they want it. we'll have tremendous democrat
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support on infrastructure as you know. i wanted to start with infrastructure, i wanted to save the easier one down the road. we'll have that done pretty quickly.
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. arthel: president trump ending the year, 2017 with, a major victory, signing the first comprehensive tax reform in decades. now republicans are looking to tackle a bipartisan infrastructure package and possibly welfare reform in the new year. garrett tenney has more on what to expect in 2018. garrett? reporter: republican leaders have a long wish list for 2018 including a couple of items that may be able to get bipartisan support. foremost among those is rebuilding america's infrastructure. the white house tells us they're looking at $200 billion
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to rebuild roads, bridges, rails and waterways. another hot-button issue the white house wants addressed is immigration reform including daca. democrats want to protect those brought into country illegally as children and president trump is willing to do that in exchange for end to chain migration and the lottery system and border wall which is a non-starter, but senator lindsey graham is optimism. >> we need the wall, not a complete 2200 mile wall. there's a deal to be had on immigration. reporter: republicans like paul ryan are eyeing a number of issues that aren't expected to get much democratic support including reforms to entitlement and welfare reform settlement which many say is untouchable. >> the privatization of social security, it's going to be the diminishment of medicare and
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medicaid, that's on the block for the colleagues in the house. reporter: next week they will hash out top priorities with mitch mcconnell at the nation's capitol. arthel: garrett tenney, thanks. we'll bring in the managing editor for the weekly standard. the state of the union speech, january 30th, over a month from today. likely will have a road map from the president. what do you expect? >> yeah, it's been quite a year. remember how people thought that 2016 was the strangest year in politics ever. then came 2017, and i have to say donald trump remained in office. that may seem like a silly statement. keep in mind the number of people including "new york times" columnist david brooks who predicted he would resign or be forced to leave office by the end of the year. and world war iii has not happened. you might think i'm being
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facetious, when you look at some of the predictions that were made after trump was elected. people thought the stock market is going to tank and never recover. we're going to have a huge recession. they've helped him have a better year than expected because they made such dire predictions that those not coming true despite the fact he didn't deliver on promises including repealing obamacare, something republicans have campaigned on for seven years and unable to do, and building the wall. the fact he got a supreme court justice nominated and passed a big tax reform and tax cut bill make it look on the whole, it was a mixed year but the dire predictions make it look like a win for donald trump. eric: he's come under a lot of criticism. his tone and his tweets, that sort of thing. does that some ways divert from the list you just mentioned. are the accomplishments that have been achieveed? >> i think you're right.
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donald trump has done quite a bit with executive orders to roll back regulations. it's not permanent, but that's one reason that the stock market is doing well and businesses are looking up. donald trump himself can't seem to talk about it. he's obsessed with his win. he keeps talking about crooked hillary. he just tweeted about her again today, as you know, he is his own worst enemy and we're seeing that. i remember in his inaugural address almost a year ago, he talked about bringing the sound country together and have not seen that over the last year, i think the comments in charlottesville being the biggest example of that, and you know, you look towards the end of the year, the special election in alabama. he lost, as mitch mcconnell pointed out republicans lost in the reddest state in america, and some of that blame has to go to the president, and so he's not only bringing the country together, it seems like he's losing a bit of his base by the end of the year. eric: what would that mean for 2018? talk of a potential white house
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shake-up or so. how can he address this, and do you think how can he get back or remain on track? >> yeah, a great question, eric, and i wonder if they're looking at the right things to do to get back on track. a lot of what i'm hearing is that the president wants to bring into the white house some of the advisers during his campaign that have not been in the white house, and some of the people are divisive. people like corey lewandowski, for example, people who are not going to help him bring back independents. they're not going to help him bring back moderate republicans that he's lost. i'm not sure that -- john kelly has done quite a bit to rein in some of the chaos at the white house. when it starts at the top, it's impossible to rein in entirely. it will be interesting to see who leaves after the year is up and who comes in. eric: we saw the joint address to congress that he gave earlier this year, as i said, beginning of the question, what do you expect he will lay out
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during the state of the union? that's the chance one month from now for him to lay out priorities. you've got infrastructure, you've got the wall and daca, but he's going need the democratic support. >> exactly, eric, and especially with what happened in alabama. next weekend he's going to be meeting at camp david with the leader of the house republicans and the leader of the senate republicans. i'm curious what will happen. these are three men with not only different priorities but conflicting priorities. donald trump wants a one trillion hopefully bipartisan infrastructure plan. paul ryan wants to look at cutting entitlements and make entitlement reforms and mitch mcconnell wants to keep the senate in republican hands. this is not going to work out well. you had a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill. if trump wants a trillion dollar infrastructure bill and paul ryan wants to cut entitlements. how are we going to pay nar.
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eric: he suggests we call it maga bonds, make america great again bonds like local governments provide for the sewer authority, the port authority, is that bandied about? have you heard trying blow up the deficit? >> i haven't heard a lot about that. what i'm hearing is focusing on trying to do the public-private partnerships and getting businesses involved and putting up money towards the infrastructure. and i think that president trump has certainly made it obvious he is willing to talk to companies and even bully them publicly to get them to do things he thinks are good for americans and bringing jobs back. i'm not sure, the strategy should be laid out in the state of the union. republicans disagree on a lot of the issues and president trump goes back and fork, for example, on daca. he canceled the program and
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tweeted, hey, he talked to the democrats and confident we'll do something. eric: maybe that will be the deal to get the wall for the democrats to have daca, you know, that's what it's all about and the democrats not on board in terms of tax and health care. >> and doesn't that seem to make sense, you got to wheel and deal. you want one thing, i want another. you have to wheel and deal. the democrats don't want to give donald trump anything that looks like a win in the midterms and i think their base doesn't want to work with donald trump. if we see bipartisan in 2018, i will be very, very surprised. eric: they'll be wheeling and dealing, see what the senators in ten states won by mr. trump by such a big margin what they'll be doing. kelly ann torrance, quite another year, see what the president lays out at the state of the union. >> happy new year. eric: to you, too. arthel? arthel: it's cold outside, arctic blast is blocking the country in a deep freeze that
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is likely to stick around for several days. a live forecast ahead. plus with a few short hours until we ring in 2018, a live look from the crossroads of the world as we get ready to ring in a very chilly new year. >> i admire people who want to stand there for many hours in the cold. it takes a special personality, but the fact is they will absolutely be safe, as you can hear from the preparations. you can't predict the market. but through good times and bad... ...at t. rowe price...
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. arthel: it's below fleegz many parts of the country, including new york city. that's not stopping hundreds of thousands of locals as well as out of towners from packing times square to watch the ball drop. the forecast says the temperature dropped to a bone-chilling 11 degrees with wind chills making it feel well below zero. our meteorologist adam klotz is live from the weather center with details. reporter: you mentioned it's below zero and not just here in the northeast. take a look at temperatures across the country. 27 degrees, well below freezing in dallas. 24 in memphis. but the coldest air hovers in the center of the countrythrough the northern plains states. i can drill you in tight or this. current air temperatures getting down to negative 12, 13 in cases but you add in the windchill, and that does drop the temperatures down more. this is what it feels like,
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fells like areas falling into the negative 30s. mid 30s, mid negative 20s. absolutely frigid. this cold air on the move settling in farther and farther, current windchills, feels like 2 degrees in new york city. a whole lot of folks are gathering. across the midwest, plenty of spots where the feels like temperature is down into the negatives. unfortunately this only gets colder through the overnight hours, taking you back to new york city, under 11 degrees, tie the second coldest new year's eve, there is the windchill of negative 2. unfortunately, it's not just isolated to the people in new york city. here's what it looks like as far as forecast and windchills from tonight to the overnight hours and see the numbers drop, getting to nelltive 2. negative 5. chicago, close to negative 25. it's not just here, a lot of
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folks are going to be cold. arthel: you got that right, adam klotz, happy new year to you. >> to you, too. arthel: don't go anywhere, stay inside. stay warm. fox news channel is new year's eve headquarters, tonight through the early hours of 2018, we'll ring in the new year with you. yes. beginning at 8:00 p.m., fnc ed henry and lisa boothe and actor dean cain will count down festivities, and at 10:00 p.m. eastern, the part ramps up with the all-american new year with kennedy and jesse watters, live from times square right here in new york, check it out. eric: if you want to see what times square is like right now. take a look. there it is. getting ready, not only are folks standing behind the barricades. they've been there for six hours in the frigid cold weather and unprecedented security measures in the crossroads of the world.
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this follows the two islamist attacks, the inspired ones since halloween. president trump said he will be kept informed of any developments throughout the night. laura ingall is there, she's been shivering from the frigid times square, she is bundled up and ready. how are things looking so far? reporter: we're doing our best to stay warm. the one thing we can say is new york city and times square is the center of worldwide attention for over 100 years. tonight revelers will see the most security they have ever seen for the big ball drop tonight. let's take a look, the nypd put in multilayered security plan in place with checkpoints for anybody who walks into the area is searched. bags inspected with bomb-sniffing dogs nearby. the k-9 units weaves in like a
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snaking river spot checking groups of people as they wait for the countdown. revelers are wanded for weapons as they patrol the crowd. sand trucks are available at every intersection leading into times square to prevent vehicle attacks. aerial patrols helping to give the nypd counterterrorism unit a fair and robust coverage plan and make mention that there is no credible threat this new year's eve and with 6,000 officers on hand, they want to make sure it stays that way. eric: new york's finest. how is everyone doing out there. how are they doing out there? how are they doing in the cold? reporter: i have been out here for hours. in and out of our sat truck, thankfully. we've been talking with people. people are creative. seen a variety of methods being
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used as the people started lining up. some will have been here for 14 hours outside, and remember, they can't leave pens to go to the bathroom, that i have to stay where they are. somewhere dressed like going skiing with goggles and hats. others are jumping up and down in place, huddled together doing everything they can for body temperatures to stay up while the outdoor temperatures drop. >> we had two groups next to us leave, it's too cold. they're like we gotta go. >> we're singing, it's like taylor swift with shake it off. we all start shaking and advancing, and then it works, and after three minutes dancing, everybody is happy in a good mood. and we think we can do it. we can do it. >> fingertips get purple, might be time to get home. reporter: i personally like seeing everybody doing the jumping jacks in place, that's how people are staying warm and got a lot longer to go, eric.
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eric: you got to do that. bryan llenas yesterday had a proposal any proposals today? reporter: nice. eric: is it too cool? >> understood. no proposals, not yet. eric: there will somebody tonight. watch out for them. laura, thanks. >> absolutely. arthel: very nice, laura. but listen security is on high as laura just reported here in new york city on, this new year's eve. right now we're going to bring in danny coulson, former deputy fbi hostage team commander. talk about how important is police presence? >> my gosh. just the mere presence of what they have there. dogs, the heavily armed police, that could deter anything happening there. you have to remember, these people that would attack us want to be successful. and if they see that kind of presence, they may go someplace else or decide not to do it.
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new york city gets it right. they do a great job there. probably the best in the world at what they do, and i'm look for a really good night for everybody that's going celebrate our new year. arthel: yeah, new york city is the best, the police are excellent. you know new york city as well as other cities, limiting vehicle access in and out where city wide celebrations are taking place. how effective is this? >> we have to look at security differe different, they are using the wake vapor dogs, they can sense the vapor from explosives, from 20, 30 yards away, and they can go right to the source of the explosive. that's amazing development we've had in law enforcement, and they're doing that. that acts as a huge deterrent. you see the dogs out. there are nobody wants to deal with a dog and that's a great idea they're doing that.
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arthel: how do the police stop the would-be snipers? >> well, basically, you cover all the basis. they have policemen inside hotels. they've talked about having hostage rescue capability, a rapid entry situation. if they have a shooter, hopefully don't, they need to neutralize and have the ability to do that and have. that i don't think there's a base they have not covered from top down, bottom up, heavy sniper teams and a whole lot of undercover police officers in there, that's a huge deterrent as well. can solve the problem before it starts. arthel: absolutely. we, of course have acknowledged what great work the police officers here in new york and across the country do, and fbi agents, et cetera. everyone working on this evening. how tough is it, though, for all of these officers to
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coordinate across this country, especially tonight where the celebrations are taking place. we're seeing how tough it is and they've got all the boxes checked. how big of a task is this for them? >> really, it's not as big as you would think. they do it every day. they don't just get ready for new year's eve. there are joint terrorism task forces all over the united states. police, federal agencies like the fbi. atf, they work together every day, and they do joint operations. while this is the super bowl of it, they have a lot of preliminary games to get ready for this. the fact we have better cooperation between state and local officers and federal officers who know each other and command know each other, it's not as difficult as you think. arthel: that's good to hear. happy new year, danny, see you next year. >> thank you. eric: anti-government protests intensifying in iran. this as the government warns demonstrators they'll face
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consequences, but the iranian opposition groups hope this could be the start of the unraveling of the islamic dictatorship. an operational official joins us on the demonstrations, the meaning and what could come next. >> i think it shows the regime is in trouble and that's why i think the united states could play an important role here, not by use of force or anything like that, but by supporting the legitimate opposition. diabetes can be a daily struggle, even if you're trying your best. along with diet and exercise, once-daily toujeo may help you control your blood sugar. get into a daily groove. ♪let's groove tonight. ♪share the spice of life. ♪baby slice it right. from the makers of lantus, toujeo provides blood sugar-lowering activity for 24 hours and beyond, proven blood sugar control all day and all night,
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. eric: looking at video from social media is protesters tearing down a protester of supreme leader ayatollah khamenei in iran, that is a once unthinkable act there. one of the most repressed countries on earth as you know.
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other protesters shouting, we're told, for support of the house of pahlavi. that means prince reza pahlavi, the son of the shah and the representative of the monarchy. some calling for the king to, quote, return to the country. growing street protests continuing for a fourth day. some wondering if they are now at a tipping point against the islamic regime that could lead to downfall. joining us is the deputy director of the u.s. office of the national council of resistance of iran in washington and author of the iran threat. always good to see you. >> thank you so much. eric: what's your reaction when you see that khamenei poster being brought down, did you expect such wide protests to suddenly explode? >> certainly i did expect that because this is not happening overnight. there have been weeks and months of anti-government demonstrations prior to that, that was primarily focused on
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the corruption and the plundering of the wealth, but the tipping point was on thursday when in mossad, large demonstrators started protesting against the leader, chanting death to rohani and extended to other cities, so far 80 cities have been engulfed in anti-government demonstrations, today 37 cities involved against the regime. people chanting death to khamenei and rohany and that is the government they like to see, and i think what you see is very reminiscent of the 2009 uprising but far deeper than that and a lot more promising. because now on the top there is a rift among the different factions of the regime, each faction is blaming the other. second, in terms of the
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population, the discontent is so deep and widespread and expanding to other cities, much more than it was in 2008. third, there is an organized opposition, the network of the mek active in iran, this exposed all the major nuclear sites, the group that is the main victim of political executions in iran over the past three decades. over 90% belong to this group and most of the political groups belong to this group. eric: that's your group, and one of the spokesman for the government is blaming the group, blaming you for the unrest? >> certainly, just this past friday. seven friday prayer leaders in various cities including mossad talked about the mek, i showing the fear of the government. they know this is the group that has the ability to organize, it has the whole history and background of
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standing up against the iran regime and clear leadership and ready to pay the price. in order to lead the opposition to lead the movement, you need to be ready to pay the price and be out there day in and day out and be among the population. eric: this wasn't supposed to happen, you got the iranian nuclear deal. a billion dollars, a $1.5 billion, it went right to the irgc? right to the iranian people? this is what we told would happen? >> what is benefitting the regime over the past few years is coming back to haunt them because all the money that was provided to the iran regime that did benefit the revolutionary guards, did benefit the network in syria and yemen and bahrain and lebanon and other places is coming back to haunt them because the people say that the money shouldn't go there. they're saying leave alone
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syria, think about us. no lebanon. my life is for iran. eric: where does this go? you saw what happened in the green revolution and president obama came under criticism for not speaking out strongly, and president trump, here are the tweets today, the whole world understands the good people of iran want change. other than the vast military power of the united states that iran's people are what the leaders fear most. the usa is watching very closely for human rights violations. you've got the president very strongly coming out in support of these demonstrators. >> and eric, i think that is very significant, you remember in 2009 when people expected the president of the united states to stand with them, when he didn't, and he was just waiting for the movement to crush so they can go back to negotiations, people show the sentiments in the streets by saying ba saying obama, obama, are you with the regime or with us?
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showing that they want to see support of not just the president of the united states but all of the free world, and it's so important that president trump has taken the stance over the past four days, every day making a statement very clearly showing his support on the side of the iranian people -- >> will that make a difference, finally? >> it certainly makes a huge difference. shows love and encouragement across the population, creates fear among the rouhani regime and the revolutionary guards, i think that needs to be coupled with specific steps, not sending arms or troops or money to the opposition, they don't need that, but taking specific measures that would weaken the regime, such as saying top officials of the regime as major violators of human rights because they've been involved in the killing of so many people over the past few years or imposing new sanctions that
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limit the resources of the rouhani regime. eric: see if the government of the united states can take some of those actions as the demonstrations continue. we hope they're peaceful but the iranian people are speaking out, and we'll be right back. ♪ pudding... ...pudding... ♪
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. arthel: the hollywood box office is getting a much-needed late surge from the newest "star wars" movie after what has been a tough year for the film business. claudia cowan has the story. >> it's alive. reporter: while the year's top movie "beauty and the beast" earned more than half a billion dollars, there was no fairytale ending at hollywood's box office. studio figures for 2017 have revenues down 2.5% from last year to just over $11 billion and attendance projected to
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slip 4% to 1.25 tickets sold in north america. the lowest level since 1995. >> i rarely go now. reporter: blame it on bad original movies, lack luster sequels and amazon and netflix. >> have you more content, more platforms available more than any other time in our history so, while the movie theater experience remains singular and essential, it's not the only game in town. reporter: the movie is just part of what brings audiences to theaters. imax ceo greg foster says the cinemas need to step it up, too. >> premium, premium, premium, that's the tenet. you have to have the fancy seats, rocker seats are the seats that imax prefers. when you're in a complex that is old and cruddy and seats aren't hot and you have gum on the floor. you notice, that especially if you are paying 15 or 17 bucks, whatever it is.
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reporter: as people rely less on critic reviews and internet buzz, social media and word of mouth before heading to the movies, the pressure to create a compelling experience has never been greater. >> when you combine a great theater experience with a great movie, people want to go to the movie theater even with all the competition that's out there. reporter: one movie people are wanting to see in the theaters, "star wars: the last jedi." 2 1/2 weeks after opening, on track to exceed one billion dollars in ticket sales and pass "beauty and the beast" as the biggest movie of the year. in westwood, california, claudia cowan, fox news. eric: as we wait to ring in the new year here in the u.s., take a look at the scene in new zealand. one of the first countries in the world to welcome in 2018, where it is now almost 11:00 a.m. next year. that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release
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>> year fresh start. 2017 was a big year for the five. 2018 will be bigger. we'll kick it off with your questions. let's begin with richard s. he wants to know, what is your story of the year. what you think?

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